u/GreatTheoryPractice

I'm exploring Mahayana Buddhism and would like to ask for some advice.

To help give context I'm almost a 50 year old empty nester who has been pulled towards Buddhism since I was a child but never lived it fully. I figured out how to meditate as a child without any training and have no idea why I place so much value on enlightenment but it has been a subconscious goal for decades. Anyway, I didn't grow up Buddhist, but still get pulled back to meditation and almost subconsciously have had Buddhism in the back of my mind for as long as I can remember.

Right now, several people who are close to me would find it challenging if I became a Buddhist so I need guidance before I commit.

I have a few questions that would really help me as someone considering Mahayana Buddhism.

1. The sutras I've read seem hard to believe, the Boddhisattvas seem to be from other dimensions and have their own worlds/lands which is a challenge to believe.

In Mahayana there seems to be countless dimensions with Buddhas in them. It's all very mind blowing and it is a challenge to believe. Other than the Buddha, there is no record of these beings existing.

They are also not mentioned in the Pali canon which makes me doubt.

That being said Mahayana feels right. I would love to hear about how you have encountered this concept and came to believe it.

2. I would also love to hear about any encounters or stories you have about encounters with Boddhisattvas to help feel faith and belief.

If there are any recommended books or articles in English on this topic please let me know.

[Update] Thank you to those who have posted already I'm learning so much and feel a sense of love and compassion reading these comments, thank you.

I've been seriously questioning something about chaos magick lately, and I'm interested in hearing from experienced practitioners. I've experienced for several years off and on.

I'm beginning to wonder whether some chaos magick techniques have the same fundamental problem as the Law of Attraction, manifestation culture, and the prosperity gospel.

The basic structure seems to be:

Perform a technique with sufficient belief, emotional intensity, or certainty.

If the desired result happens, the technique worked.

If it doesn't happen, you didn't believe enough, you had subconscious resistance, you lusted after the result, you failed to let go, or some other internal factor interfered.

This worries me because it makes the system seemingly unfalsifiable. Every success becomes evidence for magic, while every failure becomes evidence that the practitioner did something wrong.

For example, I've recently been looking at techniques involving emotional transmutation—deliberately generating the feeling of already possessing what you want. My question is: if I genuinely practice this technique and the desired outcome doesn't occur, how do I determine whether the technique itself simply doesn't work versus whether I somehow failed internally?

How could I ever know?

This seems structurally identical to someone in the prosperity gospel being told that if God hasn't blessed them financially, they simply lack sufficient faith. Or the Law of Attraction practitioner being told that their negative vibration blocked their manifestation.

In all these cases, the method itself is protected from criticism because failure is always attributed to the person using it.

I'm not posting this as a hostile skeptic or someone who wants to debunk chaos magick. I became interested in chaos magick precisely because I found the experimental attitude appealing. But increasingly I'm wondering whether "results magic" sometimes becomes an endless self-confirming loop:

"I got a result, therefore magic works."

"I didn't get a result, therefore I need to work on my belief, subconscious, emotions, attachment, technique, or try another ritual."

At what point is it legitimate to say, "Maybe this technique just doesn't do what it claims"?

And what would count as genuine evidence against a magical technique within chaos magick?

I'm particularly interested in answers from practitioners who have wrestled with this question rather than simply telling me that I need more faith, belief, or practice—because that response is exactly the problem I'm trying to understand.

Am I missing something fundamental here, or is this a genuine epistemological weakness within modern chaos magick?

This is just a proposal, an idea...

Christian non-duality and mysticism works best when there is nothing between you and God, except God.

This is what Protestantism teaches, no priest, no other intercessors, no need for merit or works, just you and God without any other. It provides the most intimate of relationships.

This seems to be a little known path to God as direct experience. Direct experience means no mediator.

In Protestantism, God is immediate, intimate. No need for works or a priest, patron saint to intercede, or merit, only faith.

I find this rarely discussed because Protestantism emerged during the period of rationalism but when you look at it, it seems very non-dual compared to other forms.

It appears that the Protestant path is the purest path to divine union without any other.

If Protestantism had emerged at a time that wasn't so "rational" I feel it would have been the height of mysticism. Mystics would have emerged that said there is no separation between people and God.

My wife is looking to find a job after some time away.

Does anyone know any good GOM rituals that I could do that would work well to help her?

Some additional info:

1)My wife is not into magick so I would do this privately.

2. I don't work with demons (no judgment on those who do btw).

3. I'm on Patreon and have most of the books.

As our finances are tied together I'm wondering what approach I can take that will help us as a family.

To anyone reading this, thank you.

To keep a long story short I have a Christian background, live in the West and I know very little about Mahayana Buddhism Doctrine or Sutras.

TLDR; I'm looking for books on Dharmakaya because a monk told me to read a book about it in a dream, and I have not come across this concept before.

Longer story below...

I received a large painting of Guan Yin as a gift. I'd come across Guan Yin before and read a few stories but that was about it.

Being curious, I decided to research a bit and came across the Daily Recitations/Liturgy used in Chan that includes the Surangama mantra, the Great Compassion Mantra, and the Ten Small Mantras. I listened to them and started to recite them for a few days to see if they could help with some issues I was going through.

After a couple of days I had a dream.

I was in a Buddhist temple grounds with statues and buildings everywhere. It was also for communal use I believe. It was a fairly big campus like atmosphere.

I went to a classroom run by a Buddhist Monk, I was the only adult in a class of teenagers. There were questions given out and I tried to answer them. At the end of class I was given the assignment to read about something called "Dharmakaya", and that I needed to see the teacher after class and borrow the book on the subject.

I then proceeded to leave the temple grounds, and when I got to the gates I realized I had forgotten the book on "Dharmakaya" that had been assigned to me.

I returned to the classroom area but the area had become a place where a celebration or a feast was happening. All the members (monks and lay people) were setting up for a party or feast and the teacher (monk) couldn't be found. The classroom was also being repurposed for the feast.

So I left the temple grounds without the book. I recall waking up and going back to sleep but I was still looking for the book each time I went to sleep such as going into bookshops and so on looking for it.

The next day, I had that phrase, roughly "dharmakaya" stuck in my head but I had no idea what it meant.

In fact I wasn't sure if I heard correctly so I tried Googling "Dhamma Nikaya" and "Dhammakaya". Nothing jumped out so I left it thinking it was probably just a dream until (I think) the next day.

Then I Googled "Dharmakaya" and found it as a very profound concept in Mahayana Buddhism!

I was blown away by this as I had never heard about this idea before.

As a result of all this I wanted to ask if anyone knows of any good books on the subject of Dharmakaya as this is new to me.